Rubik's cube

I first came across a Rubik's cube when my father, who was also a mathematics teacher, brought one home from a conference. He'd met the man himself. The prestigious puzzle came with us on holiday to Scandinavia and Dad had found me a 'How to Solve the Rubik's Cube' guidebook just before we left. By the time the ferry arrived in Gothenberg, I'd memorized all the routines. I guess I was about nine years old and our fellow passengers thought it pretty strange watching a kid sit on deck solving this apparently difficult puzzle.
The rest of the summer I practiced and practiced until my times came down to a respectable 'under a minute.' As the year wore on, it became the next big craze to sweep the UK. At one point, I was charging my classmates hard cash to solve their messed-up cubes on the school yard. My class teacher heard about it and, after warnings about profiteering, challenged me to solve one for her to see. I got lucky and several pieces dropped into place unexpectedly giving me a 17 second finish. There was some amazement, but I knew I'd fluked a good time that I've rarely matched. But for a brief time I and the maths I loved were cool.
Like all crazes it didn't last, but the cube became the icon of the eighties...

Description:

History:

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Solving (by hand):

There's a full 3x3 Rubik's cube solution guide on YouTube, but they don't allow embedding, so you'll need to click away from here and they probably are trying to sell you stuff.
Instead why not enjoy watching the ever-cool Will Smith showing how it's done:




For more advanced techniques, you might want to watch this:

Solving (by machine):

Lego is great stuff: